


Walk A Mile (Into The Future)

by PuppetMaster55



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bodyswap, But mostly fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26218780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuppetMaster55/pseuds/PuppetMaster55
Summary: Some time after Lance's 18th birthday, he wakes up in his soulmate's body.Needless to say, Kolivan is unnerved, and Lance is determined to find the largest fruit basket to apologize to the Blade of Marmora.
Relationships: Kolivan/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 108





	Walk A Mile (Into The Future)

**Author's Note:**

> written for the starcrossed kolivance zine

In retrospect, Lance should have realized this would happen.

His own birthday had passed some time ago, marking his eighteenth, that the day he would wake in his soulmate's body was only a matter of time. The only reason it hadn't come to mind was because of how distracting other things were.

In his defense, his time as a paladin of Voltron, fighting an intergalactic space war, was more than distracting enough to forget that he was due a day in his soulmate's life.

It still didn't mean that he wasn't thrown when he woke in an obviously alien location. In the body of a Galra.

After nearly five minutes were spent trying and failing to think about the ethics of peeking under the blanket—because despite the fur throwing him off _so much_ , Lance was sure that his soulmate slept in the nude—Lance took the high road and looked everywhere but at his soulmate's body.

Thankfully, the room didn't have any sort of markers that he was aboard one of the Galra cruisers, or had any of the purple gloom that the Galra Empire used. Instead, it was rather bare, with a nicely colored holo-screen on the desk across from the bed. Soft blue lighting felt easy on the eyes, and the way that the shadows weren't as dark, that the details of the room were nearly as bright as day, surprised Lance. Galra had excellent night vision. It explained why their ships always had such dark colors, at least, if not the reason for the fashion looking like it did.

“Leader.” The door slid open, and Lance nearly yelped, pulling the blanket up to his chin. A member of the Blade walked in, young and the kind of Galra that had scales instead of fur, before pausing. “...leader?”

“Uh. Yes?” Lance froze, before schooling his face in the best impression of Kolivan he could muster. “What is it?”

“There's... Voltron is calling. They're asking for you, but also asking for the Blue Paladin.” The young Blade looked thrown, uncertain. “Leader, I was unaware that the Blue Paladin was on the base.”

“He is...” Lance paused, considering the wording. He was sure that every single member of the Blade of Marmora was deeply skilled in spotting lies. “He is in close contact. Closer than Voltron can contact themselves.”

The Blade stared at Lance, eyes narrowing, before nodding. “...of course.”

The Blade turned to leave, and in a fit of panic Lance called out, “Wait!”

“Leader?” The Blade glanced back, confused and wary.

“I...” Lance hesitated, before accepting the reality of the situation. “I will require assistance in dressing.”

“... _Leader?_ ” The Blade stiffened, confusion building into panic.

“It will be explained when I speak to Voltron.” Lance nodded, trying to put on his most earnestly sternest face. “Now, help me find where Ko– where I store my outfit.”

He would make a special note to have this particular Blade get some kind of medal. Or a fruit basket. Humans, at least, knew what to expect. Random Blades, and aliens in general, hadn't signed on for anything like soulmates. And if they did, it wasn't anything like this. So, a fruit basket.

“ _Leader?!_ ”

An extra large fruit basket.

* * *

“Lance, I hate you.”

Lance winced, the gesture doing nothing to stop the young Blade from frantically staring at him. To his credit, he patted the Blade—and at this point, really needed to learn the Blade's name, hopefully someone from his team, probably Allura—on the head, which did little to make the Blade stop trembling in place.

“Why do you hate– oh.” Lance cringed at the black eye Keith sported. “If it's any consolation, this is proof all that training is paying off?”

“Kolivan punched me in the face!” Keith pointed at the black eye, as if Lance hadn't already taken note of it. “He tried to use his thighs— _your_ thighs—to choke out Shiro!”

“I had to bodily remove him from harming Shiro, yes.” Allura looked on the same level of confused as Coran, although they both were a good sight easier than the poor Blade that Lance still needed to learn the name of. “Now, if you could confirm what is happening... Lance?”

“So, Earth has this thing about Soulmates.” Lance gently coughed, placing the needed importance of the capitalization on the word, just like Abuela insisted. “Where, after a certain age, whoever has a birthday first exchanges bodies for that quintant.”

“But it's not your birthday,” Hunk said, and Lance took in the whole team. Hunk, naturally, looked the most relieved of them all at hearing Lance, while Keith maintained the light glare through his black eye. Hunk's eyes widened. “Oh.”

“So today is the quintant Kolivan was born?” Shiro glanced off-screen, and Lance realized that Kolivan was there, on the bridge with them. Shiro narrowed his eyes. “Kolivan, there's nothing wrong with you. Now, Lance might want to see you. Lance?”

“I want to see him!” Lance chirped, feeling excited. Pidge shuddered, while Keith shifted and Hunk made a noise. “What?”

“You have Kolivan's face.” Hunk gestured at Lance. “It looks– not weird, but... okay, yeah, it looks weird.”

“I didn't know Kolivan could _make_ those faces.” Pidge stared intensely at Lance, fascinated. “I thought he was permanently set into that scowl.”

“I do not scowl!” Kolivan's protest came through nice and clear, and Lance ignored Pidge and Keith in favor of seeing Kolivan, his soulmate, in his own body.

Everyone talked about how strange it was, to see someone else in their own body. An outsider's perspective on one's own facial expressions, how they walked and talked and moved and ate. If Lance were honest, and he often was in the most vocal manner possible, he didn't see how weird it could be. It was everything like watching a video he was in, where he realized how different his voice sounded to others.

None of it had prepared him for seeing his body and instinctively recognizing _Kolivan_ in every gesture, for the slant of his brow to the way his hips shifted as he walked. All of it screamed that he was looking at Kolivan and not himself, that despite it being his own body with his own muscle memory, Kolivan was the one in it and that was beautifully clear to Lance.

“Oh, look at you.” Lance felt Kolivan's face pull as he grinned. The Blade next to him squawked, but Lance couldn't find it in him to offer comfort. “Oh, beautiful.”

Keith made a noise, somewhere around the area of disgust and horror, while Hunk shrieked and covered Pidge and Shiro's eyes.

“Put that away!” Hunk had his own eyes squeezed tightly shut. Pidge leaned back, but Hunk kept his hand firmly placed on their face. “Kolivan's face shouldn't be making those kinds of faces!”

“I am quite capable of a number of expressions!” Kolivan snapped, Lance's voice coming out short and sharp. Beneath the anger, embarrassment shined with the blush on his cheeks. It was cute, and Lance could easily imagine that same blush on Kolivan's own face.

“As it stands, Voltron cannot act while this... soulmate business is happening.” Allura sighed. “We will be traveling to your location so that you and Kolivan can speak and connect.”

Lance nodded, but kept his gaze on Kolivan as the call ended. He was hunched over, arms crossed and trying to look as small as possible. It was so strange, so odd for even Kolivan, that Lance couldn't place it despite its familiarity.

“...Leader?” Lance jolted, reminded of the nearby Blade.

“Weren't you just listening?” Lance waved a hand at the blank screen. “There's soulmate magic happening here. I'm the Blue Paladin, and Kolivan is in my body.”

“...of course.” The Blade nodded, clearly not understanding, but Lance shrugged that aside.

“Come on.” Lance patted the Blade on the head, offering what he hoped came across as a disarming smile. “Allura said she was traveling here, so we should be ready to meet them.”

“Yes.” The Blade hid their trembling. “Of course... Blue Paladin?”

“You're getting it.” Lance gestured, already moving toward the door. “And on the way to the hangar—which, you're gonna lead the way, I am not familiar with the layout of this place—I can explain the soulmate magic. But in exchange, I'll need something.”

The Blade stiffened, staring at Lance with wide eyes. “Sir?”

“Your name, little Blade.” Lance blinked, finally placing what it was about Kolivan's body language that felt so familiar.

Kolivan looked afraid.

* * *

The Castle had arrived within the varga, and Lance traveled to it alongside Kotak—which, Lance was proud to finally put a name to the Blade—on one of the Blade's own ships.

Naturally, Hunk was the first person to greet Lance when they stepped out into the central hangar, wrapping his arms around Lance's waist. Kolivan couldn't be seen, and it hurt, that he wouldn't want to see his own soulmate in person.

Pushing past the hurt, Lance looked down at Hunk, who was currently sobbing into Lance's chest. He hadn't really gotten the sense of being as tall as a Galra back on the base, but now he could understand. While in his own body, he was all too used to having to look up just a little to stare Hunk in the eyes, but now he felt like he almost needed to crouch, since Hunk came up to his elbow.

The fact that Kolivan was so tall, was so large that Hunk seemed dwarfed, had Lance hoping that his blush wasn't as visible as it felt.

“Lance!” Hunk rubbed his tears into Lance's chest, and he shot Kotak a commiserating look. Now that he had humans for reference, he could see that Kotak was indeed young, only slightly taller than Shiro. “I'm so glad you're alright! I was so afraid we would have to fly back to Earth to get you!”

“It's alright, buddy. I'm here.” He chuckled, still pushing down the hurt of Kolivan's absence. “So where's Kolivan? Wouldn't he want to be here?”

Hunk winced, pulling back. The others were hanging back, although Keith was more engaged with Kotak than in paying attention to Lance. Where Hunk was avoiding the question, Shiro instead gave Lance a reassuring smile and a pat on the elbow.

“Kolivan's been taking this as well as can be expected.” Shiro glanced at Allura and Kotak. “We've been talking and it sounds like humans are the only species with soulmates.”

“Allura and Coran thinks that it's some kind of magic specific to humans.” Pidge craned her neck to look Lance in the face, and Lance realized that as small as she was compared to him normally, she was absolutely _tiny_ compared to Kolivan.

Lance fully believed that, if he ever actually said that out loud, Pidge would make it her life's mission to annihilate him.

“That's all cool, but it doesn't answer my question.” Lance stopped craning his neck down to stare directly at Pidge, looking out over the hangar. “Where's Kolivan?”

“After the video call, Kolivan excused himself back into your room.” Shiro grimaced. “He's refused to come out since then.”

Lance stared, brow furrowing as he frowned in annoyance and concern.

“Oh, that's a Kolivan regular expression. Keith! We've got a normal expression!” Lance ignored Hunk's frantic waving toward Keith in favor of stalking off toward the elevator, grim determination carrying him on.

* * *

Kolivan sat at the edge of Lance's bed, stiff as a board and with his eyes shut tight. The fear in his posture, the blankness and lack of anything, worried Lance.

“Kolivan?” Lance watched as Kolivan flinched, eyes squeezing tighter. Lance sighed, taking a seat beside his soulmate. “It's... okay, if you need time to adjust. Honestly this is different than I expected, but we can–”

“Stop.” Kolivan shuddered, cracking open an eye before shutting back tight. “Stop talking. We are going to avoid speaking as much as possible. When this is over, it will be _over_.”

Lance winced, trying to think about this from Kolivan's perspective. What must it be like for him, to have woken up in a body not his own, to have no idea what was happening, what danger he could be in. It wasn't a surprise, then, that he had punched Keith and attacked Shiro. But for him to say that...

“It won't be.” Lance looked down at his hands, at Kolivan's hands, and clenched them. “Over, I mean. We're soulmates. That means that we're meant to be together.”

“Are we?” Kolivan's voice came out sharp, but he still didn't open his eyes. “Is this not just another form of magic, like the witch Haggar does? This magic that binds us will end, and with it our bond will be done.”

“No.” Lance shook his head. “There's been attempts in the past to ignore or avoid soulmates. It _always_ ends with the soulmates together. We're meant to be together, either as friends, or lovers, rarely enemies, but always family. Your soulmate is the person who will know you like no other, will understand you in ways that no one else can.”

“That is weakness.” Kolivan finally opened his eyes, although he didn't look at Lance. “Weakness of the kind too dangerous for a war.”

“Maybe.” Lance shrugged, already far too aware of it. He was the second of the Paladins to have woken to their soulmate, Shiro keeping a tight lip on his own soulmate, that Lance couldn't help but be aware of the dangers. “But, it could also be exciting.”

Lance laid his hand down on the bed between himself and Kolivan, palm up. An open offer, if Kolivan wanted it.

“Exciting how?” Kolivan barely glanced at the offered hand, but the stiffness was bleeding away, loosening up into something much more relaxed.

“Well, isn't it exciting, knowing that there's somebody out there you could grow to love? Somebody out there that you can look forward to being with.” Lance smiled. “Isn't it something to be happy about? The future?”

“The future?” Kolivan looked down, at his hands, gently flexing them. Lance knew his hands were soft, softer than Kolivan's, but there was a hardness to them, calluses made from hard work. “After the war.”

“Haven't you ever thought about that? About what you could do, what life could be, once this is all over? When the universe is at peace? When soldiers like you and me aren't needed?” Lance smiled. “We could explore the universe. We could find somewhere quiet and settle down. We could do anything.”

“After the war...” Kolivan hummed, looking at his hands before settling his gaze onto Lance's hand between them. “Together?”

“That's what being soulmates means.” Lance turned his smile, reassuring and steady and certain, toward Kolivan. “A promise that no matter what, there's a future for us”

Kolivan considered that, finally looking up at Lance. He met Lance's gaze, and offered his own small smile. He reached out, placing his hand atop Lance's.

“I had never considered the future before,” Kolivan began, giving Lance a hesitant smile. “I think a future with you would be rather nice, if you will have me,”

“You already have me.” Lance gently squeezed Kolivan's hand. “You always will.”

They sat there, hand in hand, considering their future.


End file.
